Features » September 24, 2007

Unionbusting Confidential (cont’d)

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One such scenario dealt with union authorization cards being circulated at a factory. Stief, playing a confused worker, turned to a hotel executive named Kevin. “How are you doing, boss?” said Stief. “My uncle is in the UFCW and I met an organizer with them, Rob Youblind. I need to fill out a card about interest in a union. What should I do with the card?”

Kevin didn’t know. Stief advised him to warn his employee of the dangers of signing his names to such a document. “It’s a legally binding contract, it’s like a power of attorney, it’s like signing a blank check,” Stief said. “When you talk to them, bring it down to their level.”

Another example dealt with a supervisor who had harbored sympathy towards union organizing. “You know what we do with a supervisor who comes to you and says, ‘Hey, boss, it wasn’t me, they said it was the company’?” asked Stieff. He jerked his tie upwards against his neck to suggest a hanging–the only time the lawyers openly hinted at lawbreaking.

What if we simply wanted to fire union organizers? That was possible to do, said Stief, as long as you were careful to do so for other reasons. “Union sympathizers aren’t entitled to any more protection than other workers,” he explained. But the firing could not be linked to their union activity.

What if we felt like saying a lot of anti-union stuff to our workers? Lotito introduced a segment called “You Can Say It.” Could we tell our workers, for instance, that a union had held strike at a nearby facility only to find that all the strikers had been replaced–and that the same could happen to the employees here? Sure, said Lotito. “It’s lawful.” He added, “What happens if this statement is a lie? They didn’t have another strike, there were no replacements? It’s still lawful: The labor board doesn’t really care if people are lying.”

But if everything failed, and we found ourselves negotiating with a newly formed union, then we still shouldn’t lose heart. Instead, we could continue to undermine the union by rejecting all of its demands during negotiations. (In fact, in about a third of the cases after a union victory, employers don’t even agree to a contract.) The trick was in how to word refusals. First, with a shout, Stief demonstrated what not to say in response to a demand for increased wages: “I’m not listening to no stinkin’ wage increases!” He resumed his normal voice: “Does that sound like good faith? No.” Then Stieff showed us the proper alternative: “I’m not inclined to agree to that proposal at this time.” He observed. “Does that sound like good faith? Yes, but I’m saying the same thing I did before.” The lesson? “You can say no to anything.”

If such examples were intended to sell us on the idea of hiring legal experts, the irony is that Jackson Lewis has advised companies that have sometimes gotten into serious legal trouble. In the case of EnerSys, a South Carolina battery plant that retained Jackson Lewis at a cost of $2.7 million to thwart unionization, things got so bad that the NLRB eventually filed a complaint against EnerSys, accusing it of 120 violations of labor law, leading to a $7.75 million settlement with federal officials. EnerSys, for its part, would subsequently sue Jackson Lewis for engaging in what it termed “a relentless and unlawful campaign to oust the union.” (EnerSys was apparently astonished to learn that the union-busting firm they’d hired had engaged in union-busting.) Jackson Lewis forcefully denied that it advised or engaged in wrongdoing. The case was recently settled under confidential terms.

At your service

I had learned much in our two days together, but for those of us who’d become attached to our new friends at Jackson Lewis, we could take solace in an additional half-hour of free phone consultation. I called Michael Stief to ask him how to get rid of possible union sympathizers. I explained my concern about the “master contract” the SEIU local had arranged with its residential buildings for $18-per-hour porter salaries.

Stief assured me that the solution was essentially more Stief, or at least more Jackson Lewis, noting the New York branch’s expertise in challenging SEIU there. “That’s why you need us,” he said. “You’re not a mammoth company and you can’t afford a contract like that. The implications of that are not good for anybody.” What did he mean? “Between us, if you’re telling me that if you had to live under the master agreement, you’d be out of business and they’d be out of work–that’s what I mean,” he said. He added with a laugh, “There’s a legal way to say that.”

That’s where Jackson Lewis would come in. “Jackson Lewis was founded on the concept of preventive labor relations, and we want to help our clients before there’s full-blown organizing,” Stief told me. “We are a full-service law firm,” he stressed. “We just don’t do the legal stuff–we handle the campaign.”

But if everything failed, and we found ourselves negotiating with a newly formed union, then we still shouldn't lose heart. Instead, we could continue to undermine the union by rejecting all of its demands during negotiations. (In fact, in about a third of the cases after a union victory, employers don't even agree to a contract.)
Cassy
hair shampooPosted by cassy jessper on 2010-12-28 11:34:49

What can Americans do to effect a change in this industry? Exercise your democratic right to lobby your local, state and federal representatives, and most importantly, your local utility, to demand that only union-mined coal be used to generate the electricity that we all use, and take for granted. That is a market driven solution to dangerous, non-union coal mining.
Tommy Jamess
special Education Lecturer
70-662 | 70-663
Oxford College
70-680 | 70-683
USAPosted by Clark Anderson on 2010-12-20 02:04:59

Great article. Thanks for sharing information with us, this website is very interesting. I learn a lot of things.
comment devenir richePosted by clyde on 2010-09-28 07:20:56

I always thought unions were not around anymore. I think unions are such a great thing and help employees. I am not sure why people would want to bust up a union.
houston limoPosted by james arthur lee on 2010-04-01 22:15:08

I always thought that unions are disappearing but i think they are booming back. I think unions are great for the working man.
whistleblower lawyers san diegoPosted by james arthur lee on 2010-03-26 22:01:57

Unionbusting Economics-
The way to put unionbusters out of business is to encourage Democrats to compromise with Republicans on the Employee Free Choice Act.
Congress should pass increases on penalties for violations of current law, and remove the changes to labor law to which Republicans vehemently oppose, namely requiring companies to accept the results of a majority signature card organizing drive.
Putting economic teeth for violators of Labor Law would critically wound the Union busting industry. It would be far more economical to simply negotiate fairly with employees, rather than pay for an expensive union buster, and then paying even more expensive fines when caught firing supporters of concerted action.
Most American realize the benefits of negotiating as a group. Often employees get discounts at local merchants, or on vacation packages. The right of employees to associate with each other for mutual benefit does not require that they join a union...employees can also form moral committees, employee associations, or even their own independant unions without affilation with the big unions. Yet all Americans are harmed by the unionbusters and the economic advantages of violating labor law.
Requiring the “card check” provision on the EFCA is a bridge too far. It’s time for incremental labor reform to aid all Americans who simply believe in the enforcement of the laws that helped make America great.Posted by agilepeople on 2007-09-26 08:36:02